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Soccer Is Boring

Football, soccer — whatever it’s called it’s the most boring game I’ve ever watched compared to the NFL. Was this part of the plan? Get rid of the Chargers and then we can slide Major League Soccer in there? It’s boring!

All I see are hyping stories on the news: SoccerCity, SoccerCity. I think we’re still doomed.

Safety First

Leaky windows create mold. Safety first. Maybe a replica façade could be placed over the new windows, honoring historic value without causing damage.

Cynthia Nelson

Rancho Mirage

I Used to Be a Pedestrian Myself

I’m calling about the danger to pedestrians in this particular Point Loma area (City Lights: “City's Shocking Crosswalk Hazard Cover-up?”). I’d like to point out that pedestrians in San Diego are in danger almost all over the entire city — or even the county!

I have a car now, but I used to be a pedestrian myself, and one of the first things I’d like to bring up is that when the signal light indicates that it’s safe for pedestrians to go ahead and cross, and that little white man comes up, you have to be an Olympic track star to get through the

crosswalk before that little white man turns into a red hand. They don’t give you enough time to safely cross. I always felt very nervous crossing traffic, and almost got hit a number of times.

I live in San Ysidro and here on San Ysidro Boulevard there have been two fatal pedestrian accidents in the last year and a half.

Now I have a car. So, as a driver approaching a crosswalk, I always give pedestrians all the time they need to get across. However, I notice they tend to scurry, and behave very nervously, almost like they have to run away from the car. Also, they tend to give a nervous little wave and make eye contact. I don’t think that little wave is to say hello. I think it’s more to assure them that I actually do see them, and that I’m not going to run them over.

So, drivers in San Diego County need to be a little more courteous to pedestrians. Pedestrians shouldn’t feel like they have to scatter like little rats every time a car approaches a crosswalk.

Vivian M. Dunbar

San Ysidro

The Gateway Inn next to the border submitted a request to the city to demolish the two-story hotel where 20 children lived.

Image by Andy Boyd

Tired of Paying

I don’t believe it was right to glorify a family with nine children that is irresponsible socially and economically on the front cover of your February 23 issue (“A Dystopia of Sorts”), to interview the mother and to waste time and energy on something that the family should work out themselves. I am tired of the taxpayers in America paying for people who do not want to assimilate in our society, but want the benefits.

The husband and wife should have been fixed so that there will be no more future births that we can’t support as a nation! Please, in the future have a story on someone who is doing good for the city, state, and country, i.e., an organic vegetable farmer helping feed the nation or activists stopping big corporations like Monsanto who are ruining and slowly killing people worldwide!

Look to the Eastern Side of the Park

I see again the city is looking toward the parking garage in the worst location. Here is my old architect’s two cents.

The zoo parking lot is a natural, remembering that the entrance to the 1915/1935 expos were at the head of the eastern side of the park.

I believe that if the city were to build a multistory garage (with design) and use the lower surrounding first level of the garage for commercial shops the city could gleam rents from, then also have a place for two or more trams (again with some design) to bring people all over the park and back, this would serve the parking issue and also get the cars off the bridge and roads.

Then, at the top of this parking garage, have view-point restaurant(s) that, again, the city could gleam rents from, and the people could enjoy the top space.

This multipurpose commercial garage/restaurant space would be a win-win for all concerned.

What Could Be More Agreeable?

What’s coming out of the White House lately is far more interesting and hysterical. I wake up each morning, turn on the news, and it’s like watching an SNL episode. Sometimes you can’t tell the difference.

Take health care. I think the Reader should engage in public service and ask its readers to opine — a survey?

In consideration of all the work the Republicans have put into creating the American Health Care Act, aka Trump Care, they should have it! Let all Republicans sign up for Trumpcare! And I mean all: every Republican elected official, city, state, and federal, including the Great Tweetster himself.

For the Democrats? The Democrats have to keep the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. Again, that means everybody: city, state, and federal. For Independents and other miscellaneous political groups (Green, Libertarian, etc.), let them choose whichever health plan they like. Let the people decide over the next couple years. Tally-up the numbers for each plan in, say, 2019? Whichever plan has the most members wins! That plan becomes the plan for the nation.

What could be more agreeable then that? That way, the Republicans can save money and the Democrats can save lives. Everybody gets what they want.

Doug Fields

Point Loma

"There are now less than 30 cats in the area.”

from Jetty Cats–San Diego

Cats Deported?

I would like to point out an interesting and sadly overlooked controversy about your picture of the Mission Bay “jetty cats” in the Waterfront section.

I have been running that jetty for many years, long before volunteers starting feeding the cats. I run both in the day and in the evening, after dark. Not only have I seen the cats fed, and increase in number, but concurrently, so also has the nocturnal skunk population increased.

At night you can tell the difference between the skunks and the cats because the cats cower away while the skunks turn where they stand and raise their tails. In years past I could just run on the opposite side of the jetty road when I might happen to pass a lone skunk. This year they are on both sides and in the middle of the road and surely outnumber the cats.

I no longer run there after dark, but that is not the reason I write. I noticed on the day runs that all the cats, except for one old grizzly cat, which is white with some golden brown fur, are all black and white. Your picture also showed just black and white cats. Why is this?

What has happened to the cats of color? Could it be that the dominant skunks share the cat food with only cats of their own color? Or worse? Are cats of color deported off the jetty, in spite of their government ear-clipped vetting, as ill-appropriate aliens?

I ask you: Are skunks racist against cats of color? Should we continue to reward this racist behavior by giving them more cat food? I should think not!

Ed

Ocean Beach

At least in this area, horses seem to be able to cross the U.S.-Mexico border at will

Government Accountability Office photo

Bazillions of Dollars

I used to be a resident of Tijuana and would cross the border a couple times a week. I have watched so much money being poured into the border — bazillions of dollars. Just over the last few years they’ve reconstructed the entire border, and moved the pedestrian walkway in a different direction. I don’t think a lot of Americans across other parts of the country realize how much money goes into the border.

There is much talk about this border wall that Trump says Mexicans are going to pay for. Maybe I’m missing something but, to me, this border wall is probably the stupidest thing anyone could ever imagine.

What about all the South Americans who come in illegally through Miami? Maybe of these people end up working for New York hotels. I know because I’ve worked in New York hotels, and I’ve seen them there, from Brazil, Colombia, and other parts of the world. They come in without any documents at all. Also, a lot of people don’t know that French-Canadians have a tendency to trickle down into the United States because jobs pay more here than they do in Canada.

So, what are we going to do? Are we going to build a wall around the entire United States?